Code Mala Tang

Mar 25, 2026 · Fundamentals

How to Build a gzip Decompressor in Rust – Inside DEFLATE, Huffman & LZ77

The article walks through creating a compact 250‑line Rust gzip decompressor from scratch, explaining gzip’s header, DEFLATE block types, bit‑reading logic, Huffman coding, and LZ77 back‑references, and shows how to test it with real compressed data, highlighting key implementation challenges and trade‑offs.